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The source for these six quatrains is the Sève edition. There is some doubt as to whether these are accurate prophecies written by Nostradamus. As any other doubtful quatrain, I include them mainly because for me to arbitrarily declare them false would be a crime against scholarship. But for me to include them as factual would also be the same crime, in a different way. I treat them below as if they did come from Michael Nostradamus. But I also present them with this warning.
I must also point out that I personally believe these quatrains were written by Michael Nostradamus. The fact that five of the six can be declared to refer to specific events in our past, four of them still in the future when Sève published this, speaks loudly for their authenticity.
Some people believe Sève tried to include them as prophecies of his own. I believe that he did not try to present new quatrains but instead acted as a final gatherer and collator of the quatrains.
The original Sève book listed these quatrains as 1-6, after the original 100. For the sake of clarity, and to differentiate between these and the original quatrains that did come from Nostradamus, I will list them as 101-106.
Seront confers plusieurs de leurs attente,
Aux habitans ne sera pardonné,
Qui bien pensoient perseverer l'attente,
Mais grand loisir ne leur sera donné.
This sounds like the Vichy government. Their expectations, especially those of Laval, were that France would rise to greatness on the coattails of Adolf Hitler. Unfortunately for the Vichy government, there was one little problem. Actually, there were three little problems: Great Britain refused to roll over and die, the Soviet Union joined the British and the United States was finally attacked. Hitler declared war on the U.S. soon after. The three did not give Vichy much time to fulfill it’s expectations.
After France was liberated, the French set up a court to try two members of the Vichy government on charges of collaboration (the French term for treason) – Pétain and Laval; both were found guilty and sentenced to death. Pétain’s penalty was commuted to life imprisonment on consideration of his age and his service to France in the First World War. Laval was executed for his deeds in the Vichy regime.
Plusieurs viendront, & parleront de paix,
Entre Monarques & Siegneurs bien puissans:
Mais ne sera accordé de si prés,
Que ne se rendent plus qu’autres obeyssans.
The Religious Wars of France was part of a larger upheaval between the Catholics and the Protestants, between Kings and between their powerful Lords. The backstabbing and bickering in France, so exemplified by Henri duc de Guise and the House of Valois, was only one scene in a broad struggle for the soul of the nations and cynical ploys by powerful lords to wrest control from their kings. Germany, Poland, Italy and Austria also felt the weight of these ploys.
There were several who tried to create a just peace between kings and lords. In France there was Francis le duc de Alençon who tried to obtain a just peace between the Catholics and Huguenots. Unfortunately for Francis’s efforts, not only did many question his loyalty to Henri III, it also got him branded as a traitor to Catholicism by the Catholic League.
Las quelle fureur, helas quelle pitié,
Il y aura entre beaucoup de gens!
On ne vit onc une telle amitié,
Qu’auront les loups à courir diligens.
The key is found in line 4: the wolves. Adolf Hitler knew that his name meant Noble Wolf; when he went to the Wolf’s Lair, he was going to Adolf’s Lair. The wolves are the people of Hitler, the Nazis who blindly follow him.
Never before had the German beople been so unified. Gone were the divisions that existed during the German Empire and the Weimer Republic. A great and unified diligence replaced the divisions the Germans were used to experiencing. Against a Europe still weary from the first holocaust, the First World War, the Germans launched a savage fury. Through the Blitzkrieg, the Germans brought the fury of war to almost all Europe. In Europe only Switzerland, Sweeden and Spain escaped, though not unscathed. Even the American nations felt the Nazi rage.
Personal Note: May the world be warned. It happened before, it can happen again. And it does not have to be Germany that does it.
Beaucoup de gens voudront perlementer,
Aux grands siegneurs qui leur feront la guerre:
On ne voudra en tien les escourer,
Helas! Si Dieu n’enuoye paix en terre.
This is the cynical beginnings of the First World War. The war-makers were not the the kings but rather the lords underneath them. The kings and emperors of Europe were not in real control, power for the moment rested in the hands of great lords who desired war.
The official cause, the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand on the 28th of June in 1914, caused hardly a stir. Emperor Franz Josef was even overjoyed over the event, claiming that heaven had righted what he could not right. In the rest of Europe, the murder was merely mentioned, if at all. The most concern was shown by the Serbian government, which showed quite conclusively that they were not involved in the assassination. It was, for all practical purposes, a non-event.
It was a non-event that became a big event because Count Leopold von Berchtold, the Austrian Foreign Minister, decided to use the murder to start a war he had long desired. He drafted a list of ten demands, a list specially crafted to force a rejection by Serbia, which he presented to Serbia on July 23rd. Serbia’s position was locked into granite: They would accept no ultimatum that infringed on Serbia’s sovereignty. One of the demands deliberately infringed on Serbia’s sovereignty. Consequently, Count Berchtold expected the rejection, opened the war books of Austria and prepared for war. He also kept in contact with select officials in Germany, officials who were in favor of war.
German attitudes and actions are particularly instructive as to the chaotic scene. The Chief of the German General Staff, Count Helmuth Von Moltke the Younger, as well as the German Foreign Minister, Gottlieb Von Jagow, wanted all-out war. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was against war but would support Austria if Russia mobilized. Believing that an Austro-Serbian war would remain local, he advised Austria to go all out to humiliate and attack Serbia; he wanted a swift Austro-Serbian war that Austria would win, which would then be presented to the world as a fait accompli. Convinced that this was the course that would be taken, he left on his annual North Sea cruise. During the cruise, Moltke and Jagow kept the Kaiser out of the picture so as to prevent his “pacifistic influence.”
The attitudes of the other major countries of Europe were surprising. The official Russian and French reaction was to pressure the Serbs to agree to all ten points. Britain offered to set up a peace conference between the great powers and Serbia, and the British Foreign Minister, Sir Edward Grey, offered repeated mediation which was ultimately rejected. Italy stayed on the outside.
Serbia would accept eight of the ten demands without question, would put a qualifier to one of the demands, and would reject only one demand, the demand that infringed on Serbian sovereignty: the demand that the Serbians allow the Austrians to place Austrian police within the borders of Serbia. Any nation would reject such a demand so Serbia’s categorical rejection of this one demand is quite understandable. The list of replies was presented to the Austrians on the 25th.
Berchtold noted the rejection of the one condition and, overjoyed, immediately declared war on Serbia. The next day, he rejected Grey’s last mediation offer. Kaiser Wilhelm would return to Berlin on the 28th, read Serbian acquiescence to the demands, and exclaim that there was now no reason to go to war. He also offered to mediate between Austria and Serbia, but Berchtold and the Austrian foreign ministry acted to sabotage the effort. Of course, Berchtold had help from German Foreign Minister Jagow.
Events moved swiftly. Czar Nicholas II of Russia started a partial mobilization to defend the Serbs without antagonizing the Germans. The Kaiser responded by initiating another peace offer which was spurned by the Austrians. The British also initiated another peace offer which the Austrians spurned. At this time, due to tremendous pressure by the Russian military which wanted a full mobilization, the Russian partial mobilization turned into a full mobilization that directly threatened Germany. With the threat, the German military started a full mobilization, to Von Moltke’s joy. But what eventually troubled the Kaiser was that the German plans were to attack France first, not to fight Russia. Upon learning of this, the Keiser demanded that all westward mobilization be terminated – it was to be all shifted east. Von Moltke bluntly refused to rescind the order. When Kaiser Wilhelm capitulated, angrily stating that Moltke’s great father from the time of Bizmark would have obeyed his emperor, it was obvious that the German Army was in control of the scene. On the other side of the Rhine, France mobilized its forces; the French military was eagerly anticipating a swift revenge for its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.
The final step was activation of the Schleiffen Plan. Jagow sent an ultimatum to Belgium demanding Belgium allow German troop movement through the country to France. This helped to anger Britain who then promised to defend French coasts with their navy.
The great lords Berchtold, Jagow and Moltke got their war. The peace people who wanted to parlay to prevent war were summarily rejected and denied any and all opportunities. They were not admitted to even a hearing. It was exactly as Nostradamus said would happen.
FootNote: It is said that a few weeks after the war had commenced, when Emperor Franz Josef finally read the list of demands presented to Serbia along with the response, he was incredulous. “Why are we at war?” he is reputed to have said, “We got everything we wanted!”
Plusieurs secours viendront de tous costez,
De gens loingtains que voudront resister :
Ils seront tout à coup bien hastez,
Mais ne pourront pour cette heure assister.
This could refer to several wars. The key is which one? Keeping in mind the principle that if there are multiple interpretations to take the French one, I still find it hard to figure out, because France was aided in both World Wars by distant peoples.
It probably refers to the Second World War. When France was conquered, many different peoples wanted to aid the French. But for a while, it was impossible.
Please Note: this is the only one of the additional quatrains that I cannot find a legitimate interpretation for.
Las quel des iront Princes estrangers,
Garde roy bien qu’en ton pays ne vienne :
Il y auroit de terribles dangers
Et en maintes contrées, mesme en la Vienne.
Likely, this is a warning to a king of France to watch out for dangers that will occur in multiple times. The danger to Vienna indicates either Napoléonic Wars when Napoléon Bonaparte attacked Vienna several times, or the time of the Risorgimento, when Vienna lost vast territory to Italian unification. The fact that the king is warned eliminates the Napoléonic Wars and ties it directly to the time of the Risorgimento.
The quatrain cries out Franco-Prussian War. Napoléon III had a chance to avert or prevent the war; he refused. Prussian armed might ad already taken on first Denmark then later Austria, both times with surprising ease. Each time saw Prussia grow in size and stature. The final key was a struggle with France that would unify Germany under Prussian might. Napoléon played right into German hands and did everything he could to ensure the war would occur.
The danger in Vienna? Italy was also unifying at the time. Vienna endured the disastrous consequence of the Repubblica di San Marco, which later was incorporated (with French help) into the Italian Kingdom. Napoléon III teased and tormented the Austrian nation in Italy for as long as he could, though he paid a price for it in 1870.